Sharon Farnel
I'm a white, cisgender woman; my pronouns are she/her. I'm a settler born and raised in the land now known as Canada. I’m thankful for the ability to live, work, and study in beautiful Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Beaver Hills House), also known as Edmonton, a long time gathering place of many Indigenous peoples, which is located in Treaty 6 territory and Metis region 4. I am currently Head, Metadata Strategies at the University of Alberta Library.
Relevant Projects
I have been actively involved for several years now with the University of Alberta Library's decolonizing description initiative, which is working with local Indigenous communities to explore ways in which we can more accurately and respectfully represent those communities through our descriptive standards and practices. Through this work I have had the opportunity to be involved in similar initiatives at the regional and national level, including work with the CFLA and NIKLA on the initial draft of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Indigenous Ontology. In addition, since 2014 I have been working with community collaborators in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the north west Arctic region of what is now known as Canada to articulate a community-driven, culturally responsive knowledge organization and resource description framework for their digital library of cultural resources, and have recently completed my PhD on this work. I am passionate about working with communities to understand how we can unsettle our practices and find better ways forward together.
Affiliation
University of Alberta Library
Country
Canada